


Lingering Taste of Mint

by Stina0098



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Jealousy, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:34:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22806391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stina0098/pseuds/Stina0098
Summary: “What are you talking about?”Renjun looks back at him, confused.“Prince Mark, of course. You can say that he was sent to live with you on peaceful terms all you want but the real reason is pretty obvious.”In which Donghyuck is sure that Mark is his enemy until he isn't anymore.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 61
Kudos: 1000





	Lingering Taste of Mint

**Author's Note:**

> will i ever stop writing childhood markhyuck? probably not. was this story ever meant to be longer than eight thousand words? definitely not.

Donghyuck doesn’t remember the war, but he does remember its end.

He remembers his mother clutching him to her chest tightly, his father’s face shifting into something that didn’t resemble a frown for the first time in years, the massive feast that had been thrown to celebrate, Donghyuck for once being allowed to eat as much sweet cake as he had wanted.

He remembers the council talking of peace, of agreements with the neighboring country, of how to make sure that the fragile peace that had been established overnight would last for decades to come.

He remembers the first time he sees Mark.

Donghyuck is called from his afternoon classes to come and stand in the throne room alongside the rest of his family, shifting his feet restlessly and shivering from the cold. The first snow had fallen only a few days before, and it had already begun to seep into the castle, turning the normally temperate room unusually cold. His mother’s hand clutches his small shoulder, the other supporting his baby sister, and on the other side of the room Mark stands alone.

From all the stories Donghyuck has heard about Hasaens from his mother and friends he had imagined Mark to be brutish and ugly, face marred by scars from the victims that he’d killed, but instead he looks small, thinner even than Donghyuck, wrapped in a coat that is a size too big for him and damp from the outdoor rain.

Mark doesn’t have a crooked back or claw-like nails, standing in front of them with a posture that is perfect in a way Donghyuck’s would never be, untouchable if it hadn’t been for the fact that his eyes are too expressive to fool Donghyuck that his calm is anything other than an act.

Donghyuck stares at him openly until his father speaks, voice ringing out over the spartan room.

“Welcome to Seohan, Prince Mark.” His father says, something a bit strange about his tone. “Our countries have been at war for far too long. Hopefully you coming here and being raised alongside our son, Donghyuck, will be able to further the peace between our nations and end the animosity for good.”

His father nudges him to go and introduce himself and Mark watches him approaching with large eyes, a hesitant smile slowly working its way onto his face as Mark stretches out a small hand.

For a moment Donghyuck almost forgets that Mark is supposed to be his enemy, that his friends had said that Mark was only there so that he could infiltrate their kingdom and steal all of his belongings, but then he catches sight of his mother staring at Mark with open dislike painted on her face and catches himself, crossing his arms petulantly instead of shaking his hand.

Mark might look kind but he’s a prince of Hasae, the very same country that had claimed thousands and thousands of Seohan lives, the same country that his mother said couldn’t be trusted, that was evil.

Mark’s hand falters, smile falling off of his face at the open rejection of his friendship, and it’s only when his father sends Donghyuck an angry look that Donghyuck finally shakes his hand, letting go as quickly as he can and refusing to think about how Mark’s hand had felt cold and soft in his.

The knight from Hasae who had accompanied Mark to Seohan looks at Mark with sad eyes and Donghyuck sees Mark swallow, tensing as if bracing himself for something.

It’s not long after that that Mark is sent away to settle down into his new quarters.

His room will be right next to Donghyuck’s, separated only by a small door that the maids sometimes leave open when they clean, but from his time exploring the castle Donghyuck knows that Mark’s room isn’t nearly as nice as his own. It’s slightly larger, but it has too many windows, letting all the cold air in during the winter and allowing the sun to turn the room unbearably hot in the summer.

Donghyuck stares at the door separating their two rooms as he lays in bed that night, and while he doesn’t see Mark at breakfast the next morning, Mark is there as Donghyuck starts his geography class, dressed in clothes that are warmer than the ones he had arrived in.

Unable to be openly hostile with their teacher present, Donghyuck decides to ignore him instead, but finds it more difficult to do so as the lesson fades into the next and Mark seems to ignore him right back. It bothers Donghyuck for a reason he doesn’t understand, and while he usually hates asking the teacher for help he hogs him all to himself, sticking his tongue out at Mark when the teacher isn’t looking and hoping to at least get some sort of reaction out of him.

When they both hand in their papers to be corrected, Donghyuck expects Mark’s paper to be full of mistakes, but to Donghyuck’s surprise he only gets one red mark, scoring better than Donghyuck himself. After that the teacher warms up to Mark significantly, seemingly having forgotten that he’s their sworn enemy when he sees how meticulously Mark completes his exercises.

Donghyuck glares at them both as the lesson comes to an end and plans to dash out of the room as soon as he can, leaving Mark and his large eyes and stupid, smart head behind, when their teacher stops him before he has even as much as stepped a foot out of the classroom.

“Donghyuck, could you show Prince Mark to the stables? Your riding lessons will begin soon and I believe you know the castle better than anyone.”

Donghyuck frowns, about to protest, but then schools his expression, blinking innocently.

“Of course,” Donghyuck says and Mark looks back at him tentatively, causing Donghyuck to look away, to remind himself of the things his mother had used to tell him about the country they were at war with.

Losing Mark is as easy as breathing, Donghyuck knowing the castle’s every nook and cranny, and Donghyuck makes it to his riding lesson just shortly before it begins. When the stableman asks him about Mark he shrugs, telling him that he probably didn’t want to come and that they should begin the class without him, just as Donghyuck had intended.

Mark finally makes it to the lesson just as it is about to end, escorted by two guards who gaze at Mark as if they had just caught him trying to flay a cat. Donghyuck expects to see anger on Mark’s face, for Mark to finally show that he isn’t as nice as he wants people to believe, but Mark simply looks at him for a brief second with an unreadable expression on his face and then pointedly disregards him, focusing on the teacher.

It makes Donghyuck wonder if Mark thinks that he is childish, if he thinks that Donghyuck isn’t half as good at riding or writing as he is, and it makes something inside him itch, a need to prove that he is worthy and stronger bubbling under his skin.

He goes to bed determined to show Mark that he is better than him the next day and gets his chance when they are practicing how to fight with wooden swords, too young to use real ones just yet.

Their teacher leaves to go and prepare the next challenge, leaving them to practice on the wooden figures on their own, and Donghyuck approaches Mark.

“Let’s fight.” Donghyuck says, daring Mark to decline. For a second it looks as if he is going to, glancing at the door, but then he looks back at Donghyuck and sets his jaw, nodding despite still seeming a bit hesitant.

“Alright. But only to five.”

Donghyuck is the first to bring his wooden sword up, ready to strike. Despite the fact that Mark isn’t particularly tall for his age, he is still taller than he is, and although Donghyuck hates to admit it since Mark is skinny to the point of looking scrawny, he is probably stronger too.

Donghyuck advances first, Mark blocking his attack with little effort and taking a step back, Donghyuck noting that Mark’s way of fighting is very unlike his own. Mark has a perfect stance, a form that must have taken much time and effort into perfecting, but while he has a great defense, he isn’t quite as good at striking, which had always been Donghyuck’s strongest point.

They attack and counter-attack for a few minutes before Donghyuck manages to get the first strike in.

It’s mostly due to luck, Mark unfamiliar with their surroundings, and Mark gets the second and third. When Mark accidentally lets his guard down Donghyuck makes the score even, but by then they are both breathing heavily, sweat clinging to his forehead and dampening his hair.

Donghyuck calls for a truce so that they can drink some water and Mark agrees, lowering his wooden sword and turning away. It’s when he’s reaching for the bottle of water standing on the floor that Donghyuck strikes, getting him in the side.

“I win!”

Mark looks up, red spots dancing on his cheeks, and looks frustrated to the point of being annoyed for the first time since Donghyuck had met him. Donghyuck feels a moment of satisfaction, happy to finally have gotten some sort of reaction out of him, that he isn’t ignoring him anymore.

“You cheated!” Mark exclaims. “We had a truce!”

Donghyuck opens his mouth to respond that a prince should always have his guard up, but in that moment their teacher walks through the door and the words die on his tongue.

“Too late.” Donghyuck chirps instead, turning towards the teacher eyeing the two of them suspiciously, and although they don’t openly declare war or address their fight, things change after that.

Where before Donghyuck had tried to annoy Mark and Mark had acted like he didn’t exist, they manage to make everything, from painting portraits to learning languages to eating spicy food, into a competition. Donghyuck takes to studying in between his lessons, staying up late only so that he can attempt to score better on their tests than Mark.

He hears his parents talk about it when they think that he isn’t listening, after he excuses himself from dinner in order to read up on the other royal families in the realm.

“I’ve never seen Donghyuck work this hard before,” his mother says, sounding troubled, but his father simply lets out a chuckle.

“I think it’s a good thing. Donghyuck has a natural affinity for most things and he’s never had to actually work hard in order to get good results. Healthy competition among kids is good. Mark being here is good for him.”

His mother doesn’t look convinced, and Donghyuck doesn’t stay to listen to whatever else she has to stay.

* * *

The weather steadily grows colder and before he knows it Mark has been in Seohan for over two months. It’s around the same time Jaemin and Jeno finally return from their visit to their relatives in the North, telling Donghyuck how they had learned to ice-skate while they were there.

“It was fun,” Jeno says. “Although Jaemin spent more time trying to impress the girls watching than he did actually skating.”

Jaemin doesn’t deny it, smiling his typical smile, and Donghyuck asks his parents if he could also learn how to ice-skate that evening, never having tried it before. His mother doesn’t seem too fond of the idea but eventually agrees after his father makes a comment that Donghyuck will find one way or another to learn how to ice-skate and that it’s better if he does so under proper supervision.

His and Mark’s usual riding lesson is replaced by an ice-skating one, and while Jaemin had said that it had taken him several tries in order to learn how to skate, Donghyuck only falls twice before he learns how to balance his body on the ice, how to use the blades under his shoes to propel himself forward.

He glances over at Mark, hoping to see him looking back at him, only to see that Mark has his focus elsewhere, looking down at the lake beneath them. He doesn’t seem awkward on the ice, and for the first time it dawns on Donghyuck that Hasae is even further north than Seohan, that Mark has probably learned how to ice-skate before.

Donghyuck frowns.

“Let’s race,” he calls out, calling Mark’s attention away from the ice. He points to the small patch of land in the middle of the lake, big enough for only one person to stand on. “First to that stone over there.”

Mark looks at him warily.

“I’m not sure,” Mark begins. “I think it would be safer to—”

Donghyuck sniffs.

“Are you scared?”

Mark glares at him.

“I’m not scared, it’s just—”

“First there wins!” Donghyuck shouts, sticking his tongue out at Mark and taking off. Mark makes an almost indignant sound, telling him to wait, but Donghyuck doesn’t listen. He turns back when he has reached about half-way across the lake, cheeks flushed from the cold, and spots Mark maybe fifty meters away, having followed him despite his protests, and something like warmth blooms across his chest.

“I knew—”

And then the ice breaks beneath his feet.

Donghyuck falls into the ice-cold water, body tensing automatically as it comes into contact with the freezing lake. The water seeps into his clothes, turning the layers of clothes he had been wearing to protect himself from the cold into heavy weights clinging to his body.

Donghyuck gasps and the action sends a spike of pain up his chest.

He struggles to throw his arms up over the ice even as he realizes that he will not be able to make it out of the water. His limbs refuse to do what they are told, and there is panic clawing its way up his chest as he struggles to breathe with how cold the water is, with the way it seems determined to drag him down into its depths.

He doesn’t have time to panic for longer than a few seconds before hands are grabbing onto his arms.

“Hold on to me,” Mark pants, and uses all the strength he in his body has to slowly drag him out of the water until only his calves and feet are still soaked.

Donghyuck clings onto Mark, refusing to let go, and when he looks up Mark’s eyes are wider than he’s ever seen them, panicked. Donghyuck clutches Mark’s hand frantically, and Mark responds by squeezing him even tighter, feud abandoned as Mark supports him back to the shore as fast as Donghyuck can manage, as fast as they both can.

Their teacher is waiting for them with a horrified expression on his face as they make it back to land and Donghyuck is hurriedly sent back to the castle, the royal physician called to come as soon as he can. Maids are told to prepare him a lukewarm bath, and Donghyuck doesn’t even have time to protest, to say that he needs the water to be hot before he is shoved down into the water. He is barely submerged before the water feels like it is burning him alive, warm to the extent that it hurts even though he knows he would normally consider it cold.

He’s ordered to rest in bed for the rest of the day and falls asleep at some point. When he wakes up his mother is in his room, and for some reason so is Mark, standing by the entrance of the door looking unsure and biting his lips.

It takes a second for Donghyuck to realize that his mother is furious.

“—can’t believe you raced Donghyuck and allowed him to go out so far. You may think that you’re on equal footing to him, but you’re not. He’s the crown prince of the country, and you’re only here to make sure—”

There is a carefully blank look on Mark’s face, and the only thing that lets Donghyuck know how much his mother’s words are getting too him are his eyes, the one part of him that Mark never fully manages to hide. He knows because he studies Mark more often than he studies his books, sneaking glances at him when he thinks that Mark won’t notice.

Donghyuck speaks up, an odd weight having settled over his chest.

“I suggested the race.” Donghyuck says, and his voice sounds a bit raspy. His mother looks at him, surprised that he is awake, but Donghyuck isn’t focused on her.

Mark stares back at him with shock in his eyes before he looks a bit wary, almost as if he is expecting Donghyuck to twist his words and blame Mark for something worse.

“Mark was…helping me.”

“That still doesn’t make up for the fact that you almost died,” his mother says after a beat, continuing to glower at Mark, and Donghyuck is surprised to feel himself glaring back at her.

It is one thing for Donghyuck to bother Mark, it is another thing for his mother to do so.

She looks as if she is about to say something else when a maid knocks on the door and tells her that his sister is making a fuss, and while she looks a bit hesitant to leave the two of them alone, she eventually sighs, kissing his forehead.

“I’ll come visit you in the morning,” She says, still looking a bit wary.

Donghyuck expects Mark to leave as well, but to his surprise he lingers, hovering near the door and looking more than a little awkward. His hair is in a disarray and he’s wearing the same clothes that he had been wearing when they had been out on the ice, looking nowhere near the usual rule-abiding, proper prince that he usually did.

For the first time since Mark had arrived in Seohan Donghyuck doesn’t know what to say to him, how to act. Eventually, when the silence stretches longer than he can handle, he clears his throat and hopes that his voice won’t break.

“Just so you know, I could have gotten out of the ice myself.” He says, hoping that Mark doesn’t notice that he is blushing. “I only accepted your help because you were already there.”

Donghyuck glances at Mark.

“And at least I won.”

“You didn’t win!” Mark pouts, and Donghyuck feels a moment of satisfaction that he’s finally back to acting like normal. “And you cheated!”

Donghyuck shakes his head, but their bickering lacks their usual heat. Donghyuck might still not like Hasaens, he tells himself firmly as he lies in bed that night after Mark had left, but Mark had still saved his life and so he couldn’t be _that_ bad.

It takes another two days before he is allowed to leave his bed and attend classes like normal, and when he gets there, Mark has returned to wearing his normal sweaters, the hair that Donghyuck had discovered turned curly after it got wet looking combed again.

Mark hadn’t come to visit after the first day, and though Donghyuck had told himself that he hadn’t wanted Mark to come and visit him either way, something in him relaxes at the sight of him, for once not bothered in the slightest to have an entire day of classes ahead of him.

Figuring that he should be the mature one and officially end their feud for good, he offers Mark some of the candy he had stolen from the kitchen when they are in between their lessons, thinking that Mark will smile at him with wonder at his kindness.

Instead he only gazes at the candy like it is going to grow teeth and bite him.

“What have you done to it?” Mark asks, looking at him warily. 

“Nothing.” He raises his hand higher. “Don’t you want some?”

Mark hesitates, biting his lips.

“No, I’m fine.”

Donghyuck pouts, a little bit hurt, and it’s only later that he realizes that Mark probably doesn’t trust him, burned from the times Donghyuck had tried to trick him.

It is going to take more than some candy for Mark to trust him, for them to become friends.

He spends the rest of the lesson wondering how to bridge the gap between them, only pulled out of his musings when he hears Mark sneeze. When he looks up he thinks Mark’s cheeks look a little bit more flushed than they usually do, and when he sniffles only a few minutes later, Donghyuck recalls that while Mark had also been covered in ice-cold water that day, Donghyuck had been the only one ordered to rest.

Donghyuck frowns, and is still troubled by the time he is getting ready to go to bed, reminded that Mark’s room is much colder than his own.

Something close to unease swirls in his chest and telling himself that he simply doesn’t want to be indebted to Mark, he knocks on the door separating their two rooms, unlocking it and entering Mark’s room for the first time since Mark had arrived.

He shivers as soon as he steps a foot into the room, wrapping his arms around himself and wishing he had worn a sweater.

Mark is sitting by the window, wrapped up in a blanket, looking back at him with confusion and watery-sick eyes.

“What are you doing here?” Mark asks, and Donghyuck scratches the back of his neck, struggling to come up with an excuse.

“The maid said that you couldn’t use your room.”

Mark blinks.

“What?”

“You—she said—I think—You can’t use your room tonight.” The lie sounds obvious even to him, and Donghyuck feels warm despite being so cold.

Mark bites his lips and slumps back against the window, looking smaller than he had just a few seconds ago.

“Why? Where should I sleep?”

Donghyuck freezes, and while he usually prides himself on planning ahead, mind working quickly to get himself out of trouble, he had been so caught up in simply getting Mark out of his room that he hadn’t thought about where else he would sleep.

“Um…My room. I have a large bed.”

Mark furrows his eyebrows, looking like he wants to ask more questions, but then another gust of wind blows through the window and Donghyuck sees him tense, fight back a shiver.

To Donghyuck’s surprise Mark falls asleep almost as soon as his head hits the pillow, and it is further proof that Mark isn’t feeling well because Donghyuck has never seen Mark fully relaxed before. He realizes that he’s never seen Mark look truly happy either, the only time Donghyuck had seen him smile having been when they’d first been introduced, before Donghyuck had rejected his handshake.

Mark looks better in the morning, eyes not looking quite as glassy, but Donghyuck knocks on Mark’s door that night as well, feeling uncharacteristically nervous.

Mark looks even more doubtful of the supposed reason he can’t sleep in his own bed, but to Donghyuck’s surprise he doesn’t question it too much, probably only happy to have an excuse to stay in a warmer room.

Their shared body heat makes the bed even warmer, and when Donghyuck glances over at Mark and notices that he is still awake, he allows himself to ask the question that had been running through his mind all day.

It comes out as more of a of a statement.

“I thought you would be more used to the cold since you grew up in Hasae.” Donghyuck says, and there is a beat of silence before Mark answers. Even then it’s hesitant, like he isn’t sure what Donghyuck wants to do with the information.

“It’s different.” Mark finally answers. “It’s colder but there is also a fire in every room, and we have clothes that are warmer. It’s also not as windy.”

“Oh.” Donghyuck says. “You must like the summer though, since you decided to come here.”

Mark gets a strange expression on his face but Donghyuck continues.

“I like summer, too.” Donghyuck says, thinking of the heat and the light that summer brought. He knew that some people found the season to be overwhelming, but he had always liked it, always liked the possibilities that summer brought. He had even been born in the summer, on the hottest day of the year when the sunflowers had been in full bloom and the scent of them had wrapped around the castle like a shroud.

Donghyuck turns to Mark.

“When is your birthday?"

“In august.” Mark says. “The second.”

“That’s also during the summer,” Donghyuck says, pleasantly surprised. “We should tell the teacher so that we can get the day off and can go swimming or something.”

“We shouldn’t skip school,” Mark says automatically, and though he rejects Donghyuck’s proposal, his voice sounds a bit unsteady, a bit wobbly. When Donghyuck turns to look at him there is something in his expression that Donghyuck thinks looks a little bit vulnerable, a little bit unguarded.

“We can go swimming after school then,” Donghyuck tries, although he would normally only roll his eyes and say that missing one day of school wouldn’t hurt anyone.

“Alright,” Mark says after a beat, and something tense inside of Donghyuck finally relaxes, a weight lifting off of his shoulders. The words aren’t a promise of friendship, but they’re the promise of a _possibility_ of one, and the next breath Donghyuck takes comes a little bit easier.

Donghyuck continues to talk about all the other things they can do in the summer until he notices that Mark has fallen asleep. He wonders if he should feel vaguely offended, but all he feels is sleepy and content and it doesn’t take long until he has fallen asleep as well, body still angled towards Mark.

When Donghyuck offers Mark candy the next day in class he accepts, and they both end up sleeping in Donghyuck’s bed that night as well despite Mark being almost fully recovered from his cold.

“How did you lose me the first day in the castle?” Mark asks curiously, and pushing down the sudden guilt he feels, Donghyuck explains that he had made it his mission to explore the entire castle over the summer to the bane of every person living and working there.

He still received glares from councilman Im whenever he passed him in the hallways, the old man still grumpy that Donghyuck had accidentally walked in on him naked.

When he tells the story to Mark, Mark lets out a surprised laugh, and while it only lasts for a few seconds before Mark seems to remember himself, laugh fading, the sound lingers on Donghyuck’s mind.

Something tells Donghyuck that Mark was probably someone who had laughed a lot before he had come to Seohan, and as they fall asleep that night, Donghyuck decides that he is going to make it his mission to make Mark laugh again.

* * *

Their friendship develops hesitantly over the next few weeks, over the next few months.

Donghyuck shows him how to get around the castle, how to sneak out of the castle without anyone noticing despite Mark’s panicked comments about how they were going to get caught and teaches Mark how to swim when it becomes apparent that he doesn’t know how to –only feeling a little bit pleased that he knows something that Mark doesn’t.

In turn Mark helps him with foreign languages, covering for him whenever their teacher almost catches him falling asleep in class, and sneaks him food when Donghyuck is sent to his room after causing trouble, Mark for once more bothered by the prospect of Donghyuck going hungry than breaking the rules.

They’re very different, arguing over the most trivial of things, but to Donghyuck’s surprise he finds that he doesn’t mind. Not when they complement each other, making up for what the other person lacks.

They’re _best friends_ , Donghyuck proclaims to Jeno and Jaemin, ignoring the way they both roll their eyes when Donghyuck says that he will of course still have time to spend with them, but that they probably won’t be his sworn companions if he ever has to go to war, that place having been taken by Mark.

“You can’t have Mark as your sworn companion if you go to war with _Hasae_ ,” Jaemin says. “He won’t be much help then.”

“He’ll probably still be more help than you,” Donghyuck counters, Jaemin just sticking his tongue out in retaliation.

His words linger on Donghyuck’s mind though, and when they are both hanging out in Mark’s room later that evening Donghyuck asks Mark what he would do if their two countries ever started fighting again.

He expects Mark to joke, to say that he would be happy to hand Donghyuck over to his parents if it meant that he would finally stop annoying him, but instead Mark takes the question seriously.

“I would talk to my parents and make sure that they would never harm you,” he says, somber. “And if they didn’t listen I would help you escape somehow. We could go to Xuwan, maybe. I’m friends with their prince.”

“We?” Donghyuck asks softly. “You’d come too?”

Mark’s ears turn red.

“Only because I like the food there.”

But Donghyuck grins either way, latching on to Mark with a responding blush coloring his cheeks. But while it becomes rarer and rarer to see Donghyuck without Mark and vice versa, he isn’t the only one Mark gets closer to as winter fades and spring arrives.

One of the youngest knights, Johnny, treats Mark like he’s his younger brother, ruffling his hair and teasing him whenever he gets the chance. The chef’s apprentice, Taeyong, also grows a soft spot for Mark, as does most of their teachers.

When Mark once in a blue moon answers a question incorrectly they simply tell him to do better next time instead of berating him further like they do Donghyuck, and while Donghyuck thinks he should probably be annoyed that they are stricter on him than they are Mark, he can’t bring himself to care when Mark smiles at him whenever they catch each other’s eyes during classes and shares notes with him when their teachers aren’t looking.

Summer is upon them with all its violent delights before they know it, the door between their two rooms constantly left open. The sun turns Mark’s room unbearably hot during the day, but during the night the breeze blowing through the glass windows makes the room much cooler, and Donghyuck takes to sleeping most of his nights in Mark’s bed.

They go climbing and searching for wild strawberries in the gardens all the while Donghyuck’s skin grows tanner and his limbs longer, and while Mark still has the advantage of being taller, Donghyuck knows that it might not be like that forever, that he’s bound to end his growth-spurt before Donghyuck does.

His parents call him to their room a week before his annual birthday party to tell him that the princess of Yeori, a country to the west, will be attending his birthday celebration and that it would be good for their country if he could befriend her.

“We’ve arranged for you to marry her in the future,” his mother says, patting his head happily. “I’ve met Jisook before, she’s a really nice girl.”

Donghyuck makes a face, not interested in marrying or befriending her at all, and his opinion doesn’t change after she’s actually arrived. He complains about it to Mark when they’re in Donghyuck’s room, Mark nibbling on some watermelon while Donghyuck lays sprawled out on his bed.

“I don’t understand why I have to marry Jisook,” Donghyuck whines. “She’s so boring, all she ever does is complain about the weather and she _never_ wants to go on adventures.”

Donghyuck crosses his arms over his chest.

“Plus, if I marry her I’ll probably have to move rooms and we won’t be able to have sleepovers anymore.”

Mark frowns, more bothered by the prospect of them not sharing a bed than he is by her being boring, and although Mark is far too kind to ever be anything other than polite to Jisook, he also does anything he can to save Donghyuck from having to spend too much time with her the following days.

Donghyuck appreciates the gesture but finds himself seated next to Jisook on his birthday feast either way, Jeno and Jaemin sitting further down the table together with Jaemin’s little brother Jisung. He searches the room for Mark, not having had the chance to see him during the entire day, and frowns when he doesn’t see him anywhere.

A wave of unhappiness washes over him, and for a second he wonders if Mark had decided that he didn’t want to celebrate his birthday, but then he remembers that they had spent an entire hour just discussing what sort of cake Donghyuck would have for his birthday and that Mark wouldn’t miss it without at least telling him first.

Servants come to fill up their glasses, and while Donghyuck knows that his parents will be furious if he leaves the feast before it’s officially over and breaks etiquette, he doesn’t want to spend his birthday without Mark –even if Mark is stupid and has probably just forgotten what time the celebration began.

He sneaks away when his glass is being refilled, Jisook sending him a confused look that he ignores. There are thankfully no guards patrolling his and Mark’s part of the castle, most of them being at the celebration, but Donghyuck is surprised to find the door to Mark’s room locked when he tries to open it.

A frown tugs at his lips.

“Mark? What are you doing in your room?” He pouts. “It’s my birthday.”

“Donghyuck?”

There is the soft sound of someone approaching the door and then he hears Mark’s muffled voice from the other side of the door.

“Your mother said that I shouldn’t come to the party and that you didn’t want me there,” Mark says. “I don’t think she likes that we’re friends.”

Donghyuck doesn’t have to see Mark to know what kind of expression he is wearing, and for the first time in a long time Donghyuck feels something other than affection at the thought of his mother. Any lingering guilt he had felt at leaving the feast disappears, replaced by red-hot anger at the thought of his mother locking Mark up into his room, telling him lies in hopes of probably ruining their friendship.

He feels his stomach bubbling with anxiety only at the thought.

“I don’t care.” Donghyuck says resolutely. “My mother has always been weird around people I’m close to. You shouldn’t take it personally.”

Unable to unlock the main door, he enters his own room and opens the connecting door.

Mark stares back at him with a complicated look on his face, eyes unreadable, and Donghyuck grabs on to Mark’s hand and ignores the fact that there are more than a hundred people waiting for him downstairs.

“Let’s go and steal cake.”

He spends the rest of his ninth birthday with Mark, taking advantage of the fact that most of the guards aren’t on their usual posts to climb out of a window and sit on the part of the roof where he knows that they can’t be seen. It isn’t until the setting sun is turning the sky lilac red, both of them with bellies still full of sweets, that they leave, getting caught by a guard within a few minutes.

As expected, his parents aren’t happy that he left the feast, but for once Donghyuck doesn’t care that he isn’t allowed to go outside for two weeks, that he will probably be stuck with a guard tailing his every move for even longer than that.

When Mark isn’t invited to celebrate his tenth birthday either, Donghyuck leaves the feast as well, and after that his parents make sure to always invite Mark to the parties, knowing that Donghyuck won’t be there unless he is.

He suspects that his mother would like nothing more than to send Mark away to go live with Jeno or some other noble family away from the castle, but since the deal had been for Mark to grow up alongside Donghyuck and better the relations between the two countries, she can’t do that without risking upsetting their relations with Hasae even further. And while Donghyuck had grown up hearing all the ways Seohan was better than Hasae, the truth is that Mark is the second prince of arguably the most powerful country in the realm.

Unable to send Mark away, she attempts to separate the two of them in other ways, using the excuse that Donghyuck already needs to learn how to govern a country and ordering him to attend more council meetings.

Donghyuck wouldn’t have been against the idea if Mark had been able to attend the council meetings as well, and most people on the council didn’t speak just to hear their own voice, drawing out the meetings until Donghyuck’s entire body itched.

While Donghyuck attends council meetings Mark spends time with Johnny and the rest of the knights, and while they had always been on equal footing when it came to swordsmanship, Donghyuck is surprised when he leaves a meeting early and finds Mark on the practice grounds.

He’s smiling, sweaty, and doesn’t spot Donghyuck straight away, in the middle of a friendly battle with a knight-in-training. Mark manages to catch the other boy unaware, striking him in the side without losing a beat, and Donghyuck pauses.

He is used to the Mark outside of the training grounds, the Mark who is always tripping over his own two feet and has bruises on the weirdest of places, not to the Mark in front of him. 

Donghyuck watches them until the fight is over, until the other boy notices that he is there and panics, bowing immediately.

“Your highness,” he says and Mark spins around, lighting up visibly.

Donghyuck’s heart does something complicated.

“I thought you’d still be in your meeting.” Mark says when the other boy has left, bowing the entire time he did, and they’re finally alone.

“I managed to charm my way out of it,” Donghyuck answers, and Mark’s mouth quirks up.

“You mean you stroked their egos until they let you go?”

More like Donghyuck had made passive-aggressive comments about how the council members, important as they were, surely wouldn’t want the meeting to drag on since they undoubtedly had other things to tend to.

“Something like that.”

Mark hums.

“I’m sweaty, want to go for a swim?”

“Sure.”

It’s the first swim of the year, and since they are going to get wet either way Mark doesn’t bother calling for a servant, tugging his shirt over his shoulders and tossing it to the ground.

Donghyuck’s eyes linger on the exposed skin on Mark’s back.

He’s fifteen, Mark sixteen, and although there is still baby fat clinging to Mark’s face that Donghyuck suspects will always be there, he has also matured a lot over the years –they both have, in the middle of maturing from children to young adults.

Mark’s body is both familiar and unfamiliar, and Donghyuck finds it difficult to tear his gaze away from Mark, using the explanation that he hasn’t seen Mark without this much clothes on since last summer. While they still sleep next to each other most nights, Donghyuck having grown used to the added warmth of Mark’s body next to his and to his scent clinging to the sheets, they always go to bed wearing sleeping clothes.

Mark’s skin is pale from the winter and when he enters the cold water he tenses, shoulders drawing up, and turns to Donghyuck with an exaggerated expression on his face like he’s in pain. Donghyuck splashes water at him, diving into the lake before Mark has a chance to retaliate, and tackles Mark, dragging him into it as well.

Mark makes a choked noise, and when he finally manages to break free from Donghyuck’s grip he splutters, pushing his wet hair out of his face and revealing his perfectly arched eyebrows, smiling despite himself.

Donghyuck flushes and dips his head underwater, fingers still tingling from the feeling of Mark’s bare skin.

* * *

Jeno confesses that he’s had his first real kiss later that summer, making Donghyuck turn to him in surprise.

“With who?”

“Yerim.”

Donghyuck raises his eyebrows.

“I didn’t know she’d turned blind.”

Jeno pushes him mildly, cheeks suspiciously red.

“I doubt she likes me, though. I think she might be in love with Saeron. They’re always together.”

The words tug at Donghyuck, and while Saeron doesn’t attend his sixteenth birthday party, she is there for his seventeenth, clinging onto Yerim who has a wide smile on her face. Donghyuck turns to Jeno, about to say that he thinks he might be right when he gets sidetracked by Jaemin sneaking him a bottle of wine.

Donghyuck’s never been drunk before, although he has tasted wine on earlier occasions, and gets curious, deciding that he is going to drink the bottle when the party is over.

He grabs on to Mark as soon as he can, dragging him away from the people he had been talking to and far into the gardens, finally stopping when they are both hidden behind a large rose-bush.

“What are we doing here?” Mark asks, confused as Donghyuck settles down on the grass, dew turning his pants damp. Instead of answering Donghyuck simply pulls out the bottle of wine he had hidden in his jacket and Mark looks puzzled for a moment before he frowns.

“What—Donghyuck—You _know_ we’re not allowed to drink alcohol until we turn eighteen.”

“It’s just wine,” Donghyuck chirps. “We’ve even tried it before. Plus, Jaemin and Jeno told me that they even got to drink rum when they went to visit Jeno’s cousin. This is nothing.”

Mark still looks hesitant.

“It’s my birthday,” Donghyuck pouts, knowing that while Mark is horrible at breaking the rules, he is equally as bad at denying Donghyuck most things, especially if it is on his birthday.

Mark sighs but sits down on the grass next to him, and Donghyuck doesn’t try to hide his pleased grin, offering Mark the bottle.

Mark’s entire face twists when he takes his first sip, nose scrunching adorably.

“Why do people drink this,” he asks. “It tastes horrible.”

Donghyuck silently agrees, but eventually gets used to the taste after he’s had a few sips and a calm begins to spread throughout his veins.

The evening is pretty cold for being in the middle of the summer, but Donghyuck doesn’t feel it, staring up at the constellations in the sky and then turning back to look on Mark, eyes drawn to the small mole on Mark’s face.

They are laying side by side, but it’s only when Mark turns his head, feeling Donghyuck’s heavy gaze on him that he realizes just how close they are. The alcohol has made Mark’s cheeks flushed, ears pink, and his eyes shine like the celestial bodies in the sky.

Donghyuck forgets to breathe.

He has the odd realization that he could kiss Mark if he just leaned in a little, press his lips to his and taste the wine off of his mouth, and once the idea has popped into his mind it’s all that occupies it. His entire body hums with energy, longing for an intimacy that they have never shared before, and Donghyuck forces himself to look away before he can do something he can’t take back, before Mark can look at him with questions in his eyes.

His heart races inside his chest, and he blames it on the wine, on Jeno and his talk of Saeron and Yerim and kissing.

Thinking that he simply needs to get it out of his system, he kisses Jisook when his parents arrange for him to have lunch with her. She’s pretty and he knows that she likes him, but he still finds her boring, the attraction that he objectively knows that he should feel for her never coming. Her lips feel wrong against his, and when he withdraws her eyes are the wrong shape, their height difference awkward.

It feels like kissing his overbearing relatives that he only meets once a year, and once the kiss is over, Donghyuck doesn’t feel any desire to do it again.

That’s why it comes as an unpleasant surprise when she kisses him goodbye as she is leaving, seconds away from boarding the ship that will take her back to Yeori.

Donghyuck’s cheeks burn from something that isn’t shyness, that turns his stomach to stone.

He feels painfully aware of Mark standing on the pier, watching him alongside his parents and friends, but can’t bring himself to look at him or to do anything other than endure his mother’s pleased smile and his father’s clap on the back.

Jaemin and Jeno are there as soon as her ship has disappeared to tease him about the kiss, happier about the kiss than he is and wanting to know how that had happened, but the person Donghyuck is looking for isn’t there.

“Where’s Mark?” He asks and Jeno shrugs.

“I don’t know. He left pretty much the second Jisook stepped on deck. He must have had something he needed to do.”

Donghyuck swallows, feeling vaguely ill.

Donghyuck doesn’t see Mark for the rest of the day, and he isn’t in his room by the time they usually go to bed. Donghyuck lingers in his room, on his bed, and while he has slept on Mark’s bed several times without Mark having been there, something feels wrong about doing it that night. He walks back to his room, throwing the blanket off of his bed and tosses and turns the entire night, Mark never coming to ask him what he is doing in his own bed.

When he finally sees him the next morning Mark doesn’t treat him any differently, doesn’t even mention Jisook, and for some reason that makes Donghyuck feel even worse.

Their habit of sleeping in the same bed stops without any of them mentioning it, and Donghyuck stares at the door separating them and feels like he has lost something, unable to fall asleep without a sleepy Mark giggling at something Donghyuck had said, without Mark’s comforting scent wrapping around him like a blanket.

Things settle into a new normal that never manages to feel quite normal –Donghyuck being busy with council meetings and Mark always using the excuse that he is too warm when Donghyuck tries to cuddle— when he is called upon by his father, told that he is being sent to the Southern Isles in order to celebrate Prince Renjun coming of age.

Donghyuck has never met Prince Renjun before and couldn’t care less about southern celebrations, but he feels excited about travelling, knowing that Mark had wished to get out of the capital ever since he was a child.

“How long will we be gone?” He asks, but his father simply shakes his head.

“The invitation was for you as the Crown Prince of Seohan, not for anyone else.”

Donghyuck frowns.

“I’m sure that they won’t mind if Mark is there as well. He can come as my companion.”

“Mark will stay here.”

Donghyuck feels something bitter run like molten lava through his veins.

He barely bites back a comeback, knowing that anything he says will somehow come back to taunt him and Mark, and leaves not soon after that. Without considering where he is heading, his feet take him to the training grounds, to where he will hopefully find Mark.

He finds Jeno.

There is a restless energy to him that he hasn’t felt since he and Mark had gotten into a huge fight when they were fourteen and hadn’t spoken to each other for over a week, and when Jeno suggests sparring he agrees, not stopping his attacks until he’s panting, forehead damp with perspiration.

“Are you alright?” Jeno asks when they are both sitting on the floor, sharing a bottle of water between the two of them. “Did you and Mark have a fight?”

“They’re sending me to the Southern Isles for a month.”

“Oh.” Jeno says, understanding dawning on his face. Another beat passes before he speaks again, voice hesitant. “At least it’ll be good practice for when Mark leaves. There is only a year left, you know. Even less when you get back.”

Donghyuck’s hand, which had been raising the bottle of water to his lips, stops.

From the first time Donghyuck had seen Mark in the throne room, he’d been told that Mark would only be staying in Seohan until Donghyuck turned nineteen, but while there was less than a year left, Donghyuck has never been worried about Mark actually leaving Seohan.

Mark has never mentioned missing Hasae, rarely mentioning his parents or his brother despite Donghyuck asking about them. He’s lived in Seohan for longer than he had ever lived in Hasae and has come to know the castle and the culture just as well as Donghyuck did.

Mark has a life in Seohan.

He has Donghyuck.

“He might not,” Donghyuck says, forcing down the lump in his throat. Donghyuck can’t even imagine Mark leaving, can’t picture living a life where Mark isn’t there, awkward laughs and everything. “He came here to better the relations between Hasae and Seohan. There is nothing stopping him from staying.”

“I guess,” Jeno says, but there is something in his voice that makes Donghyuck think that he says it mostly for his sake.

In the end it’s Mark who finds him, a frown on his face.

“You’re leaving for a month?”

“The council thinks that will be needed.”

He wants to walk over and slump down beside Mark, throw an arm around his shoulder and snuggle in close, but Mark rarely allows him to these days, having drawn up an invisible wall between the two of them.

Donghyuck doesn’t bother mentioning that he had tried to extend the invitation, never understanding why his parents didn’t like his relationship with Mark when that had been the purpose of Mark coming to Seohan in the first place.

“I’ll make sure to do all the wonderful things I can while you’ll be stuck here training with Jungwoo.”

Normally Mark would only roll his eyes, attempting and failing at being annoyed, but to Donghyuck’s surprise he doesn’t, an odd expression on his face.

“A month is a long time.” Mark says. “You’ll miss the end of the summer festival and your birthday. I was hoping we could—I wanted to—never mind.”

“It’ll still be summer when I get back.” Donghyuck says. “I won’t be gone long.”

But even so, it sounds like he’s lying to himself.

He leaves for the Southern Isles only a few days later, and while the voyage isn’t as bad as he expects it to be, it’s nowhere near enjoyable.

The crown prince Renjun is there to greet him when he finally arrives, and to Donghyuck’s surprise they become fast friends, sharing similar interests and the same sense of humor. But while he likes Renjun and thinks he would fit in well with the rest of his friends, he can’t help but to compare him to Mark.

Even when Donghyuck had convinced himself that he disliked Mark, he had still been drawn to him and wanted his attention, thinking about him nonstop. But while he considers Renjun to be his friend, he doesn’t care if Renjun spends an entire evening talking to other people, feeling no need to go over and make him laugh or draw his attention back to him the way he does with Mark.

There is a noble girl from Hasae present at the Southern Court as well, a girl a head shorter than him named Seungwan who glares at him as soon as he walks into a room despite the two of them never having spoken a word to each other. Donghyuck glares back at her, the belief that Mark must be unusually kind for a Hasaen taking further root in his mind.

He makes a comment about it to Renjun after she stares angrily at him for the second time in under ten minutes, and it makes Renjun look a bit thoughtful.

“I don’t think you’ve done something to offend her personally, it’s just that most Hasaens don’t like you or your kingdom. It’s not like you were particularly nice at the peace negotiations even though you probably should have been.”

“It was war,” answers Donghyuck. “We had to give up a part of our country for peace. It’s not like we got out of it much better.”

Renjun shrugs.

“I mean, I’m not picking sides but still you basically took a child hostage to make sure that Hasae wouldn’t step out of line.”

Donghyuck frowns.

“What are you talking about?”

Renjun looks back at him, confused.

“Prince Mark, of course. You can say that he was sent to live with you on peaceful terms all you want but the real reason is pretty obvious. Mark was –or is—leverage.”

Donghyuck stares at Renjun and struggles to make sense of his words.

He had been told as a child that Mark was simply coming to live with them so that the two countries could grow closer, to further the peace between the two kingdoms. He’d never questioned it as a child, rather thinking that Mark’s family had sent him to infiltrate the castle and learn all of their secrets. He’d always wondered why his mother had been so wary of Mark, why his parents had tried to keep him and Mark from growing too attached. With Renjun’s words it all begins to make sense.

His parents and council had forced Mark’s parents to send them their son to make sure that they wouldn’t break the peace, to make sure that they wouldn’t act up or go back on their promise. And Mark, who had simply been born as the second son, had been sacrificed, sent away from his family to a country that had hated him, to a boy who had been convinced that he was evil and had refused to become his friend.

Donghyuck pales, thinking of the words he had told Jeno, how sure he had been that Mark would stay in Seohan even after his nineteenth birthday.

He wonders if he had been completely wrong.

For the first time, he wonders if Mark had a best friend back in Hasae, if he had someone that he liked. Even if he didn’t, Mark had a way of effortlessly making people like him and would probably have no problems getting close friends in Hasae even if his old ones didn’t remember him.

Nausea rears up inside of him, and he leaves the Southern Isles as soon as the celebration is over, feeling himself increasingly frustrated by the length of the journey back home instead of appreciating being away from the castle.

It’s night when they finally make it back to the port, and although he thinks that he should probably wait until the next day, he lets himself into Mark’s room for the first time in several months, heart beating loudly inside his chest.

Mark is sleeping, stray pieces of hair crossing his face.

He looks younger asleep, softer even than he does awake, and Donghyuck feels like he’s been punched, a feeling filling him that is so big that he struggles to contain in within his body. Donghyuck wonders if it’s possible to be homesick for a boy rather than a place, because for the first time since he had left the castle breathing comes easy, more home next to Mark than he is anywhere else.

A bit of panic leaks through the onslaught of emotions, and he feels a stab of hatred for his family, for himself.

Buried deep underneath the resentment he feels at his parents for stealing Mark away from his home is an overwhelming sense of relief, of gratitude.

If his parents hadn’t been merciless at the peace negotiations he and Mark would have never met, never grown up together. If they had met it would have probably been on the opposite ends of a banquet, never so much as speaking a word to each other since Hasae would have been represented by Mark’s brother.

Mark stirs and Donghyuck freezes, scared and thrilled and everything in between.

Mark rubs his eyes and then gazes up at him blearily and his face is swollen with sleep and his hair is in a disarray and Donghyuck is in love.

“Donghyuck?” Mark asks, voice raspy.

Donghyuck can’t bring himself to trust his own voice and so he only nods, and while it is too dark to see Mark’s facial expression clearly, Mark lets out what sounds like a shuddering breath, an emotion that Donghyuck can’t read crossing his face.

Mark lifts up his end of the blanket and Donghyuck feels something unclench in his chest as he climbs in next to Mark and slips his arms around Mark’s waist. He breathes in the scent of Mark, of soap –of things finally being the way they are supposed to be— and burrows his face against Mark’s neck.

Mark, painfully oblivious to most things but better at reading him than anyone else, curls his fingers around Donghyuck’s shirt.

“Was the trip that bad?” He asks, voice muffled against his hair.

“I guess travelling is overrated,” Donghyuck answers.

Donghyuck feels Mark relax against him, but then hears him snort.

“You sneaked onto a ship when you were nine,” Mark states. “And would have probably sailed away with it if you hadn’t gotten hungry. I thought you would be happy to finally travel.”

It wasn’t so much that he had gotten hungry as he had realized that travelling without Mark would be boring.

“I guess.”

Things are quiet for a moment before Donghyuck forces himself to ask the question that he had been wondering his entire trip, withdrawing from Mark’s shoulder so that he can see Mark’s face.

“Do you like Seohan?”

Mark turns his head, looking at him with a question in his eyes, and it takes a long time until he finally answers.

“I didn’t at first.” Mark admits. “But then it grew on me.”

Donghyuck tries to swallow down the lump in his throat.

“Of course, it did. It has me.” Donghyuck jokes, and although Mark is famous for being awkward when it comes to showing affection, having avoided Donghyuck the entire day after he’d written him a letter for his fifteenth birthday party, he braves his gaze.

“It does.”

Mark’s ears are pink and Donghyuck lets out a breath of air that he didn’t know that he’d been holding, his entire chest aching.

He feels like he is stuck, not wanting to stay in the same place but being terrified of what will happen if he moves.

They stare at each other in the dark, air thick with tension in a world that belongs only to the two of them, and Donghyuck wants to see how Mark flushes for a reason that isn’t cold or alcohol, wants to see how he looks, taste, sounds.

Donghyuck lets his gaze flicker over Mark’s lips and slowly lets his head inch closer, waiting for the moment Mark will pull away. When Mark doesn’t, meeting him halfway with lips that are soft and stuttering against his, Donghyuck barely remembers to breathe, feeling more intoxicated than he ever remembers being.

After Donghyuck had kissed Jisook he had wondered if kisses were only romantic in songs, in stories written down on paper, but kissing Mark is nothing like he had even imagined it to be before he had had his first kiss.

Kissing Mark has his heart racing like it’s going to catch flight inside his chest, has him deepening the kiss simply so that he can catch the lingering taste of mint on his tongue, pressing closer so that there won’t be even the smallest of space between the two of them.

Kissing Mark is exhilarating, the small moan Mark lets out when he slips his tongue into Mark’s mouth sending a jolt of heat down his body.

Donghyuck basks in their proximity, in Mark not pushing him away for the first time in months, in Mark tugging closer until he’s sprawled on top of Mark and Mark’s hands are on his skin and Donghyuck finds it difficult to string thoughts together.

When he wakes up in the morning daylight is streaming in through the large windows in Mark’s room, casting a golden hue over the entire bed.

Mark is still sleeping, the hair that he does his best to tame even more of a mess in the morning that it had been in the night, and Donghyuck feels his heart clench in his chest.

For a second, on the brink of waking up but still clinging to sleep, Donghyuck had thought he had dreamt everything, still stuck on the ship. But then Mark had mumbled something in his sleep, and Donghyuck had opened his eyes, finally realizing that the added weight on his chest was Mark’s arm and not his own.

Not much time passes until Mark’s eyes flutter open groggily, but before they do Donghyuck’s mind runs through all the possible scenarios of what will happen when they do.

He wonders if Mark will regret what they did, if he had simply been wrapped up in his emotions, if him returning in the middle of the night had caused Mark to act in way he usually wouldn’t, if he had simply continued to kiss Donghyuck because he didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

Donghyuck holds his breath as they make eye-contact, entire body tense and ready for heartbreak, but Mark simply takes one look at him and then smiles a goofy smile that Donghyuck would normally tease him for and pulls him closer.

Donghyuck deflates, feels a little bit like crying, and snuggles closer, allowing his hand to stroke up and down Mark’s back, noticing the way it makes Mark shiver.

For a few weeks after that, Donghyuck forgets that there are other people in the world other than the two of them.

He gets used to waking up with his face buried in Mark’s neck, to their legs having entwined at some point during the night, to a happiness that he doesn’t think he’s ever felt before.

Kissing Mark whenever he wants to is strange, but it never fails to make his heart race in his chest like it is going to burst. Donghyuck sneaks off to see Mark in the middle of the day whenever he gets a chance, and on the occasions that he can’t, Mark comes searching for him. Even mundane things like walking side by side in the hallways or listening to their teacher talk an hour in detail about a topic Donghyuck will have probably forgotten before the week is over gets a new glow to it.

Donghyuck is only reminded that the world doesn’t solely revolve around the two of them when his parents call him to their chambers, telling him that they have already begun to plan his wedding to Jisook.

“We think it would be a good idea to have the wedding shortly after you turn nineteen.” His father says. “You two have been engaged for several years and it would be suitable if the wedding could take place when all the foreign guests will be here for your birthday either way.”

Donghyuck’s throat runs dry.

“Even the queen of Hasae will be here for your birthday,” his mother adds. “Although it is probably only so that she can return to Hasae with Mark after the celebration is over.”

His mother is no longer quite as vocal about her dislike for their neighboring country, hate faded from years of peace, but she still says it with a hint of distaste.

Dread washes over Donghyuck, swallowing him whole, because if the queen of Hasae will travel and step a foot on Seohan soil for the first time in recent history, then the prospect of Mark leaving becomes even more tangible.

Donghyuck’s mind reels, trying to find a solution that will end in Mark staying and his engagement to Jisook broken.

It doesn’t take him long to decide that the best chance he has of both is to convince his parents to postpone the wedding until after he’s turned twenty, until he by Seohan law will have received the lands that are his by birthright. His parents will not have any formal say in who he marries after that, not even with the support of the council, and while it will break etiquette to go against them even after he’s turned twenty, Donghyuck is not about to start caring about etiquette now.

“I think it would be better to postpone the wedding,” Donghyuck says and his mother frowns.

“Why?”

“We are both still very young,” he says, and then hoping for it not to sound like he is simply making excuses he adds, “Jisook has also only ever been here for short periods of time and doesn’t know much about Seohan customs or traditions. Waiting a year will make the transition into being a Seohan princess much smoother.”

His mother considers his words and then nods.

“That is true. She will be here for your nineteenth birthday and it will be better if eventual problems can be solved now rather than after you’ve gotten married.”

Donghyuck takes care not to show how relieved he is, simply nodding like it didn’t matter to him one way or another.

“We will tell Jisook that she is welcome to arrive earlier than the rest of the guests so that you two can have more time to each other,” She says, and some of the relief fades.

Donghyuck is dismissed soon after and retreats to his room, feeling like his stomach has sunken to the ground.

Mark looks up as he enters and frowns, and although Donghyuck has a million different things on his mind his heart still skips a beat at the sight of him.

“You look ill.” Mark says, approaching Donghyuck with a worried look on his face.

“Thank you.”

Mark sends him a pointed look.

“Donghyuck, you—” But Donghyuck ignores whatever Mark is about to say, already knowing that he is going to ask what is wrong, to pull at Mark’s collar and pull him into a kiss.

Mark makes a noise in the back of his throat, half in protest, half in surprise, but Donghyuck kisses him until it fades, until it is replaced by a moan that Mark tries to muffle.

Donghyuck kisses down Mark’s neck, already tugging at his clothes and slipping his hand beneath the waistband of Mark’s trousers, around his length.

“I know something that will make me feel better,” he says, and Mark just groans, already semi-hard in Donghyuck’s hand, buckling into his palm. 

“I promised Johnny I would meet him in the courtyard.”

“You can go later.”

Mark groans again, swearing quietly under his breath, but responds by pulling Donghyuck into another kiss, pulling him towards the bed.

When they are skin against skin, Mark’s panting against his shoulder with cheeks that are as pink as his thighs, Donghyuck finds himself uttering the words that he had been wanting to tell Mark since he had returned from the Southern Isles.

“Stay.”

“Johnny will murder me,” Mark breathes. “Very slowly and over a long period of time.”

“No, after my birthday. Stay.”

Mark blinks, and then his already large eyes widen.

Donghyuck kisses him before he has the chance to respond, before Donghyuck can hear him say no.

When they are both spent, curled up against each other, Mark is silent for so long that Donghyuck thinks that he must have forgotten his request.

“I haven’t been in Hasae for almost ten years,” Mark finally says. “I haven’t met my family in almost a decade.”

“You have a family here,” Donghyuck answers. “You have Johnny, you have Taeyong, Taeil.” _You have me_.

Something complicated crosses Mark’s face, something that Donghyuck can’t even begin to read, but then he lets out a long breath, resting his forehead against Donghyuck’s shoulder.

“Alright,” He says, and Donghyuck feels himself relax at the words. “Alright.”

* * *

The newfound security Donghyuck feels at Mark having said that he will stay is wrecked when Jisook actually arrives, Mark tensing beside him as they greet her in the throne room.

Donghyuck hasn’t seen her in almost a year, but the almost-year seems to have changed her, because while she had previously always seemed excited to be in Seohan, to greet him, that excitement seems gone. He understands why when Donghyuck catches her sneak constant glances at one of the men accompanying her from Yeolri –a knight Donghyuck thinks is called Jaehyun. He is handsome and shining in his armor and Donghyuck feels relief, happy that Jisook will probably only be relieved to have their engagement broken.

He is equally as relieved that Jisook stops searching him out, that they both try their best to avoid each other, because while Mark doesn’t say anything about Jisook, Donghyuck can tell that Mark is bothered by her presence by the way his smiles dim, the way he takes to spending more time away from the castle.

Donghyuck knows that he should tell Mark about his plans to pretend to want to marry her until he turns twenty, but knows that doing so would also mean that Mark would know that his parents might as well want them to marry earlier, and that would mean shaking the fragile ’alright’ further.

Having noticed that Donghyuck and Jisook don’t spend much time together, his mother invites them both to dinner, for once extending the invitation to Mark to keep up the pretense that Mark is treated just like any other family member.

Donghyuck knows that the dinner will end in disaster before it even begins, but doesn’t have time to warn Mark before his mother pastes a perfectly formed smile on her face.

“I received a letter from your father today, Jisook.” She says. “We have already begun to plan how to best incorporate dishes from both our countries at the wedding feast, I can’t wait for the actual wedding day.” His mother turns to Mark. “What do you think, Mark? Surely Donghyuck must have told you all about it. It was his idea for Jisook to come here earlier and learn about Seohan traditions.”

Donghyuck feels his heart drop to his stomach, and Mark visibly pales, turning to look at him with shock, with betrayal.

“I…No, I didn’t hear.” Mark croaks out, a storm brewing in his eyes. “I…Sorry, I just realized that I need to go.”

And so Mark, who had told him to stay and attend his ninth birthday party despite not being invited to it simply because it would be improper not to, leaves without another word. Donghyuck follows, ignoring the warning in his mother’s voice as she calls after him, not even turning to look at her.

Donghyuck isn’t sure if Mark has returned to his room, but he heads for it either way, and when he opens the door Mark is standing in the middle of it.

It is only then that he sees that the shock has passed to anger, the emotion uncommon on Mark’s face.

“You’ve been planning a wedding this whole time!?”

“It’s not what it seems,” Donghyuck says, but Mark doesn’t seem to hear him.

“You asked me to stay but what kind of life would I actually have here, Donghyuck? Staying on the side, constantly waiting for you to throw me some scraps?”

Mark looks furious but most of all he looks betrayed, heartbroken.

And Donghyuck, knowing that he shouldn’t but feeling like he’s out of options, stretched thin and frustrated by being locked in an engagement that he had never wanted in the first place, feels the tension from the past month build up inside of him.

“What kind of life would you have in _Hasae_ , Mark?” Donghyuck snaps. “Your parents sent you away like a goat to be sacrificed. You barely even know your family anymore!”

Mark stumbles, anger wiped clean off his face.

“How do you…?”

“Renjun told me! He told me that you were only sent here to be a glorified hostage! It nearly gave me a heart attack, I thought you liked being here! That you would stay!”

Donghyuck sees Mark’s eyes move, connecting dots that Donghyuck doesn’t follow, before his expression shutters.

“That’s why you kissed me,” Mark states, trying to keep his voice apathetic but not quite succeeding. “Because you thought I would leave.”

For the first time Donghyuck realizes that his actions can be interpreted differently, that Mark thinks that he used Mark’s feelings against him when he found out that there was a high chance of him leaving but still planned on getting married to Jisook.

Donghyuck had always thought of his actions and motives as clear, but they obviously weren’t, the two of them never even having spoken about the night Donghyuck had returned from the Southern Isles.

Trying to stop their relationship from becoming irredeemably damaged, Donghyuck speaks up.

“I’ve probably been in love with you since the moment we first met,” He says. “I didn’t kiss you because of something Renjun said, I kissed you because I wanted to, because I had thought about kissing you every single day since I turned seventeen. I don’t care if I have to give the throne to my sister, my home is with you. If you’re leaving, I’m coming with you.”

And Donghyuck thinks he would hate it, having been raised to rule and spent too much time in council meetings thinking about all the things he wanted to change for it all to fade to dust, but he would. There is no doubt about it.

Mark’s face is colored by shock, the awkward Mark he knows finally returning.

“Donghyuck—I never—I would never ask that of you.”

“You don’t have to. I’m never marrying Jisook.”

Mark bites his lip, eyebrows furrowing unhappily.

“Your parents would rather you marry a mouse than me. And I doubt my parents would be thrilled, either.”

Donghyuck doesn’t think Mark owes his parents anything.

“I don’t care.” He says, “If the only option I have is to give up the throne, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

Mark looks at him, still biting his lip, but nods.

“I don’t care either what my parents think either,” Mark says, and Donghyuck knows what the words mean to him since Mark has always tried his best to play his part, to do his duty.

His chest blooms with warmth, and Donghyuck leaves to call on the council the first thing he does the next morning, thinking that he should have probably done so a long time ago.

It won’t be quite as easy breaking his engagement to Jisook without having turned nineteen, but it is not impossible.

Once the council members are all gathered, as are his parents, Donghyuck states the reason he had called them all together.

“I’m not marrying Jisook.”

It goes about as well as he expects.

“That is out of the question! We need Yeolri on our side if our relation with Hasae sours, which it undoubtedly will after Prince Mark returns. Marrying Jisook is necessary!”

“There is a better option than Jisook if we want to make sure that the peace with Hasae lasts,” Donghyuck says, and sees confusion on all of the council members except one.

“Who?” Councilman Lee asks, sounding doubtful.

“Mark.”

His mother splutters in her seat, and it takes him another five minutes until he has calmed the council enough to continue.

“We lost tenths of thousands of our men in the war against Hasae. Our people won’t care that we’ve allied ourselves with Yeolri if a war breaks out, because by the time Yeolri soldiers get to Seohan, Hasae will already have penetrated our borders and killed our men. What our people want is peace, to be able to settle down and continue to rebuild their lands, not having to worry about sending their sons and daughters and husbands into war.”

Ironically, his mother sending him to attend council meetings has given him an extra edge, because unlike his mother, Donghyuck knows how the council members usually vote and what to say. He knows that he needs councilwoman Yeo on his side if he wants to win, that most will follow whatever decision she supports.

Donghyuck speaks his last words to her, hoping that she will follow his reasoning.

“Marrying Mark will guarantee that the peace continues. That we’ve officially put our former differences behind us. It would make Hasae our ally.”

When it is time for the council to vote and reach an agreement, Donghyuck holds his breath, more tense than he remembers ever being.

Councilwoman Yeo speaks up first.

“It is not ideal to break off a several-year-long engagement with Yeolri, but there are other ways we can make up for it. Seohan will suffer a much larger blow if we don’t listen to what Prince Donghyuck has to say.”

She says it like she knows exactly what will happen if they don’t allow him to break off his engagement to Jisook, that she knows that he will refuse his throne, and Donghyuck barely stops himself from slumping in relief when the majority of the council agrees with her, with him.

* * *

The queen of Hasae is a short woman with a kind face and sad eyes, never quite succeeding in keeping her eyes away from Mark for longer than a minute or two. When he is introduced to her he spots the same kind of dislike on her face that his mother gets when she looks at Mark, and it’s the only reason he doesn’t immediately shake off his mother’s hand when she comes to stand beside him on his nineteenth birthday.

“You know I only ever want you happy, right?” She says. “I only wanted you safe.”

It’s not quite an apology, and Donghyuck thinks that it will take a long time before his relationship with his mother can mend, if it ever fully can, but he also knows that her dislike for Mark was only born out of a misplaced love for him.

“I know.”

They exchange a few more words before she leaves to go and get something to eat, and Donghyuck uses the opportunity to go and stand beside Mark.

“Want to get out of here?”

Mark glances at him and lowers the glass from his lips, looking half-exasperated, half-amused.

“Really?”

“It might be the last time I can actually get away with it.”

They end up swimming in the lake, the water heated and warm from the summer sun, almost as warm as Mark’s skin. When he emerges from the water he shakes his head to rid it off access water, looking a bit like a wet puppy, before turning back to look at Donghyuck, eyes soft.

“My mom agreed to the marriage, you know. Said that she just wanted me happy, but that we had to wait until we were both at least twenty-one.”

Donghyuck had never really cared about getting married growing up, but finds himself surprised that he is a bit bothered by the prospect of them having to wait to get married. He was engaged to Jisook for almost ten years and that never accumulated to anything, he wants it to be different with Mark.

Still, he knows how relieved Mark is by his mother’s blessing and feels himself having to fight a smile.

“That’s good to know,” He says. “Two years will give me plenty of time to flee. Plenty of time for Jeno and Jaemin to throw an amazing bachelor party.”

Mark tackles Donghyuck, sending him spiraling into the water and into a fit of laughter, making up for it by pressing his lips against his. 

**Author's Note:**

> if you enjoyed the story please let me know!
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/donkimaki)


End file.
